cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/2881638
The largest piracy community is hosted over at !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
lemmy.world has blocked it. It appears to have also blocked !piracy@lemmy.ml.
If this is a problem for you, I’d suggest migrating accounts using LASIM to an instance that doesn’t block it (such as lemm.ee).
edit:
An official announcement has been made:
But aren’t they protected under the same laws that other sites like Reddit are already protected under?
As far as being responsible for what their users post, last I heard that already had laws that protected the sites that hosted them so they were not responsible.
IANAL.
Legal / illegal is the wrong term here because this type of thing is a civil matter.
If you were a volunteer admin and receive a cease and desist notice from an expensive law firm with an army of lawyers representing a client with infinite money, what would you do?
Would you pay your own lawyers out of your own pocket to stand up for your freedoms and rights, or would you just roll over and let someone else take up that fight? Would definitely be the latter for me.
Has it been ever a civil matter for any other company that hosts? I have not heard of any lawsuits of any kind for decades at this point.
As far as I know this is completely and absolutely settled, with no concern about future litigation possible.
IANAL.
That may be true, but it’s easy to say that as a third party who is not receiving threats of litigation.
Well I’m not saying it out of ignorance as a third party, I’ve actually read articles going all the way back to the time of BBS sites, where US laws protect those who host these sites from being responsible for the comments that people make that sit on their servers.
I don’t remember the exact law name right now (IANAL) but I know it exists, I’ve read articles about it before.
That doesn’t really address my point though.
Even if you’re 100% confident that you will ultimately be found blameless, most people would take action to avoid facing a civil suit.
A well resourced opponent will drag you to consultation. Even forcing you to respond to a legal demand is an arduous task. You might grind through it and even get awarded costs, but you’d have to bear those costs while you’re going through the process.
Point is, they can still destroy your resolve without winning a case.
You’re over exaggerating the effort required to initially defend yourself against something like this.
Plus the safe harbor laws are very defined, so a judge would most likely throw the case out of court early on, if it even ever got that far. The safe harbor laws as I understand them are very clear on this.
You’re overexaggerating the desire for volunteers invest any effort whatsoever in defending themselves against a sophisticated and well resourced civil lawsuit.
Now that’s hyperbole.
And again, while I am not a lawyer, my understanding is the law is very specific and very clear on this matter. Companies that host sites that people put comments on (as long as they follow the hosting requirements of the law) are immune from prosecution. Safe harbors.
Lemmy.world is hosted on a german Server and afaik run by german people. Hosting or even just linking to anything piracy related in germany would be suicide.
Finnish server, main admin is Dutch.
My bad. I was sure i read somewhere they are hosted in germany. guess i was wrong. Still, hosting or linking to illegal stuff inside the EU is probably still a very bad idea. apart from it violating the ToS of the hoster (Hetzner).
For the individual, but not for the website hosting the comment (at least in the U.S.). IANAL.